On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether youâre traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good morning, everybody,
As we often do on Wednesdays, we marvel at Bill’s submissions. Thanks, as always!
These remind me a bit of in 2015, when there was a huge (for now, not for then!) flight of WWII aircraft down the Potomac, over downtown, and then away, to memorialize the 70th anniversary of VE Day. My mother and I held each other, goose pimples everywhere as plane after plane flew by in formation. Our vantage point near, but far above, the river and upstream from DC was ideal as they all flew right overhead. It was easy to imagine one’s self in WWII and hearing the throbbing of the bombers approaching and running to hide. I’ll see if any of my pics are acceptable and perhaps post sometime.
Ok, enough about me – without further ado, Bill:
I know it’s a bit late for the greeting, but we in the southland take New Year’s day very seriously. You’ve probably heard of the little parade they have in Pasadena and the football contest there as well, but we think of bombers, blimps and bowls(not the herb kind, but that’s legal here too). No matter how wild our New Year’s Eve festivities might have been, at about 8am on New Years Day we are greeted by the sound of a low flying jet courtesy of the United States Air Force. I’ve made a point of getting up before 8am and photographing this flying wing as it makes it’s final turn to line up for it’s flight over the crowds assembled to watch the bands and the flowers of the Rose Parade. What I never realized until this year is that there are 2 B-2 bombers in the sky above Glendale New Year’s morning. They also fly a backup bomber in case something goes wrong with the primary plane. After the bomber’s flight over Colorado Blvd., they(remember there are two of them) fly over the high desert and the San Gabriel mountains to await the flight over the Rose Bowl.
For the past several years, I’ve photographed the bombers as they flew over Glendale, but this year I decided to fire up the Prius and drive/hike up to a ridge overlooking the Rose Bowl(it’s about a mile from where I took some of the sunset pictures my last submission) to catch the return of the B-2 as it flew over the Rose Bowl. About 10 minutes prior the game time, you could see the two planes flying over the San Gabriels. At game time, one of the bombers began to descend into the Arroyo Seco canyon to make it’s path over the Rose Bowl.
The B-2 bomber flies southeast over The Valley and makes a turn over Glendale to line up the Colorado Blvd in Pasadena to the east.
Second B-2?
This is the frame that’s a bit out of focus, but there seems to be a second B-2 in the upper left portion of the frame. A backup maybe?
Pretty much right over my very humble abode, the B-2 makes it’s final turn to east.
Goodyear blimp over the Rose Bowl.
In the background you can see(there’s a bit of haze) Mt. San Gregornio on the left and Mt. San Jacinto to the right.
While your humble photographer has been processing his morning photos of the B-2 flying over Glendale, the planes have been flying over the California high desert and the San Gabriel mountains. Just before game time one of the bombers makes it’s approach to fly over the Rose Bowl.
Wide shot of the Rose Bowl and Pasadena with Saddleback at the right.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Bill,
What was the shutter speed on the B-2 pictures?
Baud
Happy New year, Bill.
JPL
Happy New Year.  I’m not sure that we want to start the year over though.
The Dangerman
Please pardon the 3am, can’t sleep, pedantic post, perhaps problematic in its accuracy. Definitely San Jacinto (took me a while to find it, but that’s a 3 am thing). Can San Gorgonio been seen from that angle? It might be Mt. San Bernardino. On second look, that ribbon of snow on SG kinda tells me now you are right and I should go back to bed. All excellent hikes (especially SJ, where one can cheat and ride the tram … used to be you could ride down for free if you hiked up from Idyllwild, but I think they changed that after hikers abused it).
DIdn’t know they had a backup B2 on station.
Quinerly
??????
HinTN
Very nice shots (of LA and the B-2).
A few years ago I was at a conference in Palm Springs and was determined to play hooky one afternoon and walk to the top of San Jacinto. My sea level lungs only got me as far as Wellman’s Divide, but it was a great walk. The vegetation up there versus the desert floor is amazing.
Thanks for the memory and pix.
HinTN
@The Dangerman: The tram and the restaurant were a definite plus.
Shantanu Saha
Those canât be B-2s. Our president told us that stealth aircraft are supposed to be invisible.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: 1/200 and 1/320 of a second.
@Baud: Thanks.
@JPL: Happy New Year, at least there won’t be any bombers flying over the house this morning, I hope.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: Heh, Google Maps is your friend. I’ve thought about doing the San Jacinto hike(I’d cheat with the tram). I’ve been shooting the B-2’s since 2016 and never had seen the backup.
@Quinerly: Thanks.
@HinTN: Thanks and you’re welcome. Because of the tram and can be done as a day hike(almost), a good number of folk use the San Jacinto hike as prep for Mt. Whitney for the altitude.
@Shantanu Saha: It’s worse than you think, in 2018 I got a pic of the B-2 and 2 F-35’s. I’m beginning to think we may not be able to trust that Trump fella.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Alain@OP: Glendale is close to two Forest Lawn cemeteries(Glendale and Hollywood Hills) and we often get flights of a few WW2 vintage aircraft flying over here for the Patriotic holidays(Memorial, Veterans, and the 4th of July) as well as military funerals at the cemeteries. My Cocker Spaniel is not amused by these airplanes.
[Shameless Self Promotion]
If you’d like to see a sample of my work that my patrons got to see the first of in December, I have a public gallery on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/december-2019-at-33152312
[/Shameless Self Promotion]
different-church-lady
My god, the stealth aircraft are so completely freaky to see move through the sky. Your eye is telling you, “That thing can’t be moving like that. That thing can’t even be flying!”
We had a flyover Fenway Park in the 90s that I saw from a distance from a hillside deck, side angle, with the boston skyline as a backdrop. The thing looked like it was floating in one place, then suddenly shot forward towards the park.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: It’s a very strange looking plane. One think I didn’t mention, this year(for the first time) the pilot of the B-2 that did the flyovers was a female officer.
J R in WV
Nice job, Billin. As usual ~!!~
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@?BillinGlendaleCA: What modes did you use to take the photo – was it auto, sports, manual? Did you use a tripod?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: Thanks.
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Manual and no tripod. One of the reasons I was using a faster speed was I was shooting with a 200mm lens on a cropped sensor(I probably should have shot the earlier stuff at 1/320).